# Curator for deleting indices older than 30 days or more based on a field that isn't of type date
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [June 13, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248 "2017-06-13T17:19:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@shrenikgala](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shrenikgala)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/1 "2017-06-13T17:19:16Z")
{
"\_index": "user:1494813192000",
"\_type": "fruits",
"\_id": "pbyac5r88-yghe-v1ez-cpgb-sqdjipr54alzgj/tp4oqalbd-bo2v-ikj1-atfq-wezcoeeuf6wiqpt/apple",
"\_score": 1,
"\_routing": "pbyac5r88-yghe-v1ez-cpgb-sqdjipr54alzgj",
"\_source": {
"numCal": 442,
"eventTime": 1497315192000,
"fruitName": "apple"
}
This is how the index in my elasticsearch looks like. The eventTime is the current time in ms based on UTC. I would want to use that field to delete my indices using the curator.
This is how my ACTION\_FILE.YML looks like
actions:
1:
action: delete\_indices
description: \>-
Delete indices older than 45 days (based on index name), for logstash-
prefixed indices. Ignore the error if the filter does not result in an
actionable list of indices (ignore\_empty\_list) and exit cleanly.
options:
ignore\_empty\_list: True
timeout\_override:
continue\_if\_exception: False
disable\_action: False
filters:
- filtertype: age
source: field\_stats
field: 'eventTime'
direction: older
unit: days
unit\_count: 30
exclude:
Does curator support deleting based on fields that aren't in data format?
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2017, 8:14pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/2 "2017-06-13T20:14:33Z")
> [@shrenikgala](#):
>
> how do I make this a recurring job that the curator would do.
In Linux/Unix systems, you use cron. In Windows, use the Task Scheduler.
---
### Author:  [@shrenikgala](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shrenikgala)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/3 "2017-06-19T19:04:50Z")
Thanks. I realized that I was missing the index prefix too, it worked after I put that inside the yml file. Also how do I make this a recurring job that the curator would do.
---
### Author:  [@shrenikgala](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shrenikgala)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/4 "2017-06-22T19:50:39Z")
There isn't a parameter that could be set in the ACTION file to make it recur ?
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2017, 7:57pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/5 "2017-06-22T19:57:25Z")
No. It's not presently designed to be daemonized.
---
### Author:  [@shrenikgala](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shrenikgala)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/6 "2017-06-22T19:58:54Z")
Thanks for the quick reply. Btw how would you suggest doing this, having a cron job or having a docker with curator running on the elasticsearch machine.
---
### Author:  [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/7 "2017-06-22T21:40:29Z")
Either is completely acceptable. cron may be slightly more common, but I see a lot of both cron and Docker
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-for-deleting-indices-older-than-30-days-or-more-based-on-a-field-that-isnt-of-type-date/89248/8 "2017-07-20T21:40:45Z")
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